Rubber duck antennas ,testing swr advise please

[original45]

I have a couple of rubber duck antennas I wish to check out on swr meter. 2m 70 handies
However my meter is old school with both connections on rear plate so won't all sit inline above mount

I'm wondering if I connect with coax I will get a close to correct reading or by adding coax it becomes part of antenna ?

Doesn't help that their sma and my meter is so239 so even more connectors needed.
I don't get on with complicated modern digital stuff and prefer analogue needle. As well as testing antenna I wish to test counterpoise wires when fitted also to finer tune length.

Will it work or not please.
Thanks.

[lambrettadave]

You could get a right angle adaptor for the so239 and then a reducer from pl to sma

[original45]

Just ordered one Dave sounds fine thank you.
See how we get on .

Atvb

[wa10]

The handie is the other half of the antenna with rubber ducks, even the longer 5/8 ducks use the handie for return currents/groundplane so measuring as it is on the handie is not possible,

sticking meters between them as seen on tv/internet won't give a true reading but it can tell you if its miles away/faulty/open /short curcuit,

measuring on coax will make the coax outer braid part of the antenna as you said,
you could add radials & some ferrite to decouple it from the coax braid or stick it on a mag-mount & measure it,

but that only tells you the match to the coax in that configuration, neither will tell you with any accuracy what load the transmitter is seeing when its on the handie,

a method of tuning if you want to play with wire radials is use a field strength meter or a receiver s-meter & trim for maximum signal.

[original45]

Thank you I can try few of those ideas.
I have a racial piece ,bits on way also to connect to magmount also.
Never straightforward.
Appreciate your knowledge shared.
Cheers